Melania the Elder
Holy Land saint
b. c. 350 · d. c. 410
Melania the Elder, Latin Melania Maior was a Desert Mother who was an influential figure in the Christian ascetic movement that sprang up in the generation after the Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion of the Roman Empire. She was a contemporary of, and well known to, Abba Macarius and other Desert Fathers in Egypt, Jerome, Augustine of Hippo, Paulinus of Nola, and Evagrius of Pontus, and she founded two religious communities on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. She stands out for the double monastery she founded - a convent for herself, and a second monastery for monks dedicated to her spiritual companion, Rufinus of Aquileia, which belong to the earliest Christian monastic communities, and because she promoted the asceticism which she, as a follower of Origen, considered indispensable for salvation.
Related people
- Maximus spouse of · traditional
- Publicola parent of · traditional
- Evagrius Ponticus influenced · traditional
- Paulinus of Nola relative of · traditional
- Valerius Maximus Basilius spouse of · traditional
Events
Commemorated
Places
- Hispania birth
- Rome birth
- Jerusalem death
- Byzantine Empire ministry
- Ancient Rome ministry
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- The Lausiac History 1 claim — Melania follows the exiled monks of Egypt
- Apology against Jerome, the Apology to Anastasius, and the Prefaces to the translations 1 claim — Melania the Elder founds the monastery on the Mount of Olives